51. Kings and slaves attacking the city




 Lunch at the buyout shop.
 I met up with Emily, who had hunted dandelions in Arsenic in the morning, and I waited for her in the waiting area inside the buyer's shop while she tallied up her purchases.

 As I was hand-held watching the adventurers in the same purchase, a teacup was presented from the side and placed on the table in front of me.
 I looked up and saw that it was Elsa. She put the tea in front of me and sat down across from me.

"Have a cup of tea while you wait.
We're serving tea here.
''Mr. Lyota, you're a regular customer. I'm sure this cup of tea will help us do even more.
Well, I'm gonna have to go hunting.

 Elsa and I laugh and drink the tea.
 To my surprise, it doesn't taste like tea bags or powdered tea, it tastes like proper tea leaves steeped and brewed.
 I was a little pleased to see that the tea leaves had been steeped properly, not just in a tea bag or powdered tea.

Come to think of it, it's almost the harvest festival, isn't it?
Harvest Festival?
'You don't know? It's a festival held once a year in Cyclo.
'Oh, since it's called a harvest festival, does it have something to do with monster drops?'
'Yes. The festival will take place over three days. During that time, the products of all the dungeons in Cyclo will be collected and released to the public.
Yeah, it's all there.
Yes, all of them.
What are you going to do with all the produce you've collected?

 I remembered a tomato festival.
 I remembered a festival I was at that was held overseas, and I was impressed by the huge amount of tomatoes that filled the streets and made them look like snowball fights.

 I wonder if they're going to smash the produce, or eat it.

'We're going to take them down,'
"Huh?
There's an arena in the south of the city, where they display the products and then turn them back into monsters. It's an exhibition of both products and monsters.
Oh, I see.

 I'm subtly convinced, this is another event that's typical of this world (...).
 For a moment I was like "Oh?" at having them haggle in the city. But it's a well-planned event in the arena, and it's an annual event.
 I'm sure they've done a good job of dealing with it after turning it into a haggler.

It's good for ordinary products, but rare monster drops are still difficult to collect. That's why they're so expensive.''
I see.
'I'll give you a list of the rare drops that haven't been collected so far later.
Ha-ha, I'll work for my tea.
Yes.

 Elsa smiled and gave a flowery smile.

     ☆

 We left the buyer's shop, including Celeste, who joined us at the end of the day.
 Ryota and his family, the three of us, headed to the tellurian today as well.

''Harvest festival, that's what it's all about.
Wasn't there a place Celeste used to live?
We didn't have any festivals where I lived.
I see.

 I nodded and agreed.
 There are towns that don't have any such festivals, right?
 It wasn't anything to do with me, so I ended the discussion of the harvest festival.

 Instead, I brought up a topic I'd been thinking about.

I'm thinking of renting a new room. My current room is a two-bedroom, and Emily and Celeste are in the same room, but I still think we'd like three rooms.
I don't mind, you know?
Me too.
Yeah. But you know what, I just want to. The three of us make a living off the potatoes, don't we? I'd like to use that to rent a room for the three of us to live in, the Ryota family's hideout.

 Emily and Celeste looked at each other.

"I agree with you,
Me too, sir.
'Alright, we'll go to the real estate office as soon as we get up there after this today. I'll see what I can do.
'I dare to suggest a bad room. I'd like to see Emily take a bad room and make it look like a temple before and after.
'I know the feeling! I know, but since we're here, why don't we rent a nice room?
'Yes. Besides, a room like that might leave.
I'm a little scared of the ghosts.

 Emily pulled with her hammer.
 Even though she could physically smash a huge rock, the spiritual ones looked scary.

'Nah, I mean the thing that comes out,'
That thing?
Yes, that thing, Goki--
No, Celeste, no more!

 I stopped in a hurry, but I was already late.
 Bish! I heard the sound of the air freeze.
 I looked at Emily fearfully.

 Emily stopped in place, and the light was gone from her eyes.

'Miss Yoda,'
What?
I would commit seppuku if I had to.

 With that, Emily tightens her grip on her beloved hammer.

'Wait, Emily, that hammer won't cut your stomach!
That's all right, people can do it when they think they can. I'd rather cut myself cleanly with a hammer than be threatened by that thing. Hmmm, that's right, I'm going to practice a bit now.
'Woohoo! Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, don't be too quick--and you're too strong Emily!

 While Celeste is stunned by what's happened, I do my best to quiet Emily (Power A), who is trying to commit seppuku with a hammer.
 By the time I finally stopped Emily and brought her back to her senses.

'Mr. Lyota, you're not supposed to talk about that ...... thing.

 Celeste seemed to understand.

 After I managed to quiet Emily down, we pulled ourselves together and headed back to Terdungeon.

 Suddenly, I heard a scream.
 It was a mixture of male and female voices, from all walks of life.
 The city suddenly began to buzz.

'What's going on!'
I don't know, sir.
I can hear the screams coming from over there.

 Celeste pointed towards the entrance of the city to the dungeon.
 I soon found out why.

'Monsters! There's a haggler!

 Residents of the city shouted loudly as they came running in.
 My mind wandered back to before.

 An adventurous-looking man and woman run past us.

"You idiot!
What's going on?
'I was so blinded by money that I forced myself to beat the rares in the deeper levels, but they died while I was coming back to town from the dungeon.
Oh, ...... unattended items from being turned into dead bodies.
All right, I'll give you a break. That's not something we can handle.
Yeah!

 The pair of adventurers said that and ran away at full speed.

''Kyaaaah!''

 I heard another scream, closer this time.
 I looked at the voice, and to my surprise, it was Elsa.
 She's falling backwards on her ass.
 The one approaching her is a slime.
 It was a beautiful slime with a pink body, double eyelids and long eyelashes - if you just look at its face, it was a beautiful slime.

"Slime jarya!

 Celeste let out a near scream.
 You've only been at Cyclo for a short time and you've already found out the information.

 But I didn't have time to listen to it carefully.
 I drew my gun and fired at the slimejahlia anyway, without the time to load it.

 Regular bullets flew out from the left and strapped bullets flew out from the right.
 The straitjacket emitted a flash of light and bound the slimejarya with a rope of light.

 While it was being restrained, I approached Erza and quickly picked her up.

'Lyota-san.
Hang on!

 I flew backwards, holding Elsa in my arms.
 In exchange, Emily turned her hammer and jumped, with a covering shot from Celeste's bicorn horn flaming bullets that Celeste fired.

 The slime jarya in restraints was hit by the flaming bullets, and Emily's hammer also hit her in the brain.
 But it didn't cause him to fall down.

''Haaaaah!''

 Emily's spirits rose as she slammed the hammer down again and again on the slime jarya, which was still bound.
 It was like pounding like a rice cake.

 Halfway through, the rope of restraint light broke, so I fired another restraint round into the support.

 After ten seconds of hitting the almost (,) unresisting Slime Jarya one-sidedly, I was finally able to defeat it.

''That guy's tough.
Slimejarya, that monster in Tellurium 26.
Twenty-sixth floor? He was that deep in the hierarchy. No wonder he's so tough.

'Oh, um, ...... Mr Lyota.'

 Elsa's voice came out in her arms.
 It's a faint voice. When I looked at her, her face was pale and her hands were trembling.

Thank you ...... for that.
You okay? Are you hurt in any way?
No injuries.
Good.

 For now, Elsa seemed to be fine.
 She was fine enough to let go of her hand and fend for herself.

'But why hasn't the commotion subsided?
'I think it's because Slimejarya is a regular monster on the 26th floor.
'What? This one wasn't rare.

 Celeste nodded and said with a serious face.

''The rare monster on the twenty-sixth floor is the Slime Sultan, a slime wearing a crown, so they say you can easily recognize it by looking at it.
You mean like the crown ...... is kingly. Well, that's different from what we have now, that was more like a queen around a king.
Yeah. But I think I'm okay now.

 As Celeste said, the commotion was slowly subsiding.
 High level adventurers who had heard about the emergency appeared one by one, and battles were beginning all over the city - battles that weren't for escape.

 Even from a distance, I could tell, the atmosphere I often felt in the dungeon.
 I felt that atmosphere of monsters being defeated by adventurers and diminishing in number.

''I guess we're all good now--''
"Kyah!

 I was almost relieved when I heard more screams.
 I looked at Emily and Celeste and ran out at almost the same time.
 As I ran towards the scream, I saw a monster there.

 It was a crowned slime, a slime sultan.
 There are a few adventurers down around them, it looks like this guy got them.

'Mr. Yoda, we're going to help everyone!

 Emily was the first to jump out of the way.
 She turned the hammer in a circle and jumped on it, but instead of swinging down as usual, she landed and then swung directly to the side.
 With a full swing of the giant hammer, which far exceeded his 130 centimeter body, he swept the Slime Sultan right to the side.

 Emily is chasing after the blown up slime sultan - no, she's chasing after the fallen adventurer as if she's defending him.
 Celeste also ran while following her.

''--!

 Gritting his teeth, he filled his two guns with recovery rounds and shot every single adventurer around him.
 I sent out a few recovery shots here and there to make sure we were out of the danger zone, and then I rushed out to save Emily and the others.

 Emily was in trouble.
 She's underneath the Slime Sultan, preventing him from nearly crushing her with his hammer.

 Celeste is bellowing fire with her bicorn horn, but her level 1 magic has little effect on the slime sultan.

'Let Emily go ...... away!

 Rushing, I teamed up with the Slime Sultan and pushed him in place.
 I pushed it back on top of Emily and gouged the ground.

 He pushed the slime sultan against the wall of the building, the wall was half destroyed and debris came tumbling down.
 The Slime Sultan fought back, transforming his body.
 It flew backwards, guarding, quickly reloading and shooting a restraining round.

 After glowing, the Slime Sultan was restrained by a rope of light.
 However - it came off immediately.

''Won't it last two seconds?''

 I glance behind me, Celeste is waking Emily up, Emily doesn't seem to be injured, but her hammer is bent from being latched onto by the Slime Sultan.

 I can't expect Emily's firepower, I'll have to do it.

 I reload - a series of shots.
 One of them is all regular bullets, the other one has the first strapped round and the rest are all regular bullets.

 The strapped bullets hit, and the slime sultan was held for about two seconds.
 During that time, he shoots penetrating bullets from a close range of only one meter.

 I've shot enough to empty my magazine, but I haven't been able to reach my goal.
 But he seems to be listening.

"So long!

 Loaded again, same as before, one strapped round, all the others normal.

"Whoa!

 Fire a series of shots at the restrained slime from one meter.
 He keeps firing while he is restrained.
 Just before the restraint is released, he shoots more restrained bullets and fires a series of penetrating bullets.

 Repeat that - 10 sets.
 I was finally able to defeat the slime sultan that was literally turned into a beehive.

"Wow, you're not even close to being tough. You'd be in big trouble if you fought that bastard.

 Thank goodness I had strapped bullets, I managed (、、、、) to get out of harm's way with a barrage of strapped bullets that efficiently traded for 4 flaming bullets and 2 recovery bullets.

 So while I was relieved, a pouch-like thing was dropped from the slime sultan, which was a haggle of things.